Xiaomi expands production capacity

Xiaomi has already completed its planned capacity expansion of the factory and is on track to meet the annual target of 100,000 units by early November, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, said in a Weibo post. That would be about two months earlier than planned. At the end of May, the company said it wanted to build 100,000 vehicles by the end of the year.

However, Xiaomi is even more ambitious and last week acquired a plot of land to expand the factory. Once the extension has been completed, an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles would be possible. A subsidiary of Xiaomi acquired the plot of land in the Yizhuang development zone in south-east Beijing for 842 million yen (around 107 million euros), as announced by a local authority. The contract for the land has a lease term of 50 years and covers an area of 531,130 square metres, according to the announcement.

No exports to European markets for the time being

Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s presentation of the SU7 in Paris has fuelled speculation that the model will soon be sold in Europe. However, Xiaomi has now denied these speculations in an online event. Xiaomi made it clear that there are no immediate plans to sell cars overseas.

The Xiaomi SU7 spotted in Paris was part of the exclusive ‘Xiaomi [Human x Car x Home] Smart Ecosystem’ exhibition in the city’s museum district. The vehicle attracted a lot of attention and many visitors took photos with it. However, a European sales launch is not imminent. Back in March of this year, Xiaomi had already commented on overseas market entry issues, stating that there were currently no plans for international sales and advising the public to wait for official announcements.

Hypercar SU7 Ultra to be launched in 2025

There is also news about the SU7 Ultra hypercar presented a few days ago, which is due to start a record attempt on the Nürburgring in the near future. According to CEO Lei Jun, a series version of the vehicle is set to go into production in the first half of 2025. Lei Jun confirmed that the production version of the SU7 Ultra will have the same battery, the same three motors and the same chassis as the SU7 Ultra prototype. However, it will not have a carbon design to keep costs down. The production version of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra will be available in two trim levels: a regular and a track version. The SU7 Ultra is a performance version of the regular SU7, which was presented in March 2024. Read our driving review of the regular SU7 here.

More than 30,000 units of the SU7 have been delivered in just over three months since its market launch, and more than 10,000 units of this model are also expected to be delivered in July, according to Lei Jun. Anyone ordering an SU7 in China currently has to wait around 30 days for delivery. By December, Xiaomi plans to have 220 sales outlets, 135 service outlets and 53 delivery centres in 59 cities in China, according to Lei.

Update 5 August 2024

As has only just been revealed, Xiaomi started building the factory extension in the Yizhuang development zone on 26 July – just one day after the company bought the land. A speed that one cannot imagine in Germany or elsewhere in Europe, considering building laws and lengthy application processes – but things work differently in China. Xiaomi will apparently not manufacture its first SU7 model in the expansion but will reserve the space for future vehicles. According to media reports, the carmaker will launch an SUV that will compete with the Tesla Model Y in the first half of 2025. Rumour has it that Xiaomi is also planning another SUV with a range extender for 2026.

cnevpost.com (production numbers), cnevpost.com (property), gasgoo.com (European exports), carnewschina.com (SU7 Ultra), cnevpost.com (update)